Myyah Hawwa
Myyah Hawwa (Miang Hawwa in the English localization) is a major antagonist in Xenogears, having possessed the bodies of 998 women over thousands of years. In the time of Xenogears, she is a Solarian Gebler sub-lieutenant. In her Guardian Angel form, she is disguised as Executioner. Myyah is one of two duplicates of the mother of all humanity, with the other being Elehayym, the antitype.Perfect Works, pg. 169 Myyah's goal is to facilitate the completion of humans as live parts for the resurrection of Deus, facilitating and resetting humanity as necessary when she deems them unsuitable as parts.Perfect Works pg. 11Perfect Works, pg. 166 As the Contact is fated by the Wave Existence to destroy Deus, Myyah is determined to ensure that each incarnation of the Contact does not grow self awareness. Personality Myyah is a being defined by her role and actions as the "complement" throughout history, as her sole purpose is Deus's eventual resurrection, regardless of the devastating consequences for humanity. This is the sole reason for her existence, and she has no other goals.Perfect Works, pg. 166 In order to resurrect Deus, Myyah must guide, manipulate, subdue, and, as necessary, cull humanity until their genetic material is refined and numerous enough to provide the essential fleshy parts of Deus's new body. This goal is aided by the fact that, every time Myyah moves to another host, she inherits all her memories and powers every time she possesses another woman while at the same time sealing away that woman's personality. While many examples of Myyah's tactics seen in the game are interpersonal, a large portion of Myyah's goal is achieved indirectly through manipulation and influencing others on a larger scale (brainwashing, mind control, psychological warfare, slavery, etc). To this end, Myyah has always infiltrated government and political affairs, entering positions of man-made power in order to more successfully control human thought and behavior. Many of Myyah's plans are achieved indirectly through manipulation and influencing others, sometimes on a massive scale, as she has had a hand in instigating and encouraging human conflict and war by encouraging division and nationalism. Under her guise as the masked Executioner, Myyah shows her other role as punisher, directly engaging with Fei and his party on more than one occasion. Myyah's actions and choices are limited by her 'programming', as she occasionally admits. As such, she does not choose who each of her incarnations are, she cannot kill herself, and she cannot and does not deviate from her 'coding'. Hiding her true purpose under the guise of each incarnation, Myyah is manipulative, forceful, and emotionally abusive. When Myyah possesses Fei Wong Fong's mother Karen Wong, she conducted painful and torturous experiments on Fei in order to deduce his abilities as the Contact, only to act the part of a normal wife the rare times Fei's father, Khan, was around. In her 998th incarnation, when Myyah reincarnated in the body Kahran Ramsus's new lover, she used this relationship to better shape him into a tool she could easily manipulate, using her previous knowledge to tear away his confidence and self esteem. As someone created for one purpose, it is unclear if Myyah is able to feel guilt, doubt, or remorse over the consequences of her actions, and if Myyah can be considered a psychopath. Even when she seems egotistical and even proud of her accomplishments, this may be her simply using her words to goad or manipulate people, rather than due to a human sense of pride. She also shows no fear of death, even when, immediately near the end of her incarnation as Karen Wong, she faced dying in the face of Fei's berserk powers, or when she is killed by Ramsus. Background Eldridge crash The final moments of the Eldridge catastrophe resulted in the creation of the original 'mother' being, tasked by the Deus system to give birth to an entire civilization that would provide and gather all the biological and mechanical "spare parts" it needed to repair and reactivate. One of the many humans that the first being gave birth to was Myyah's first incarnation, known as the Complement. The Complement's purpose was to guide and shape the events of human history to better suit the coming resurrection of Deus. All women who were descended from the Mother possess the genetic factor necessary to become the next incarnation of Myyah. When the current incarnation dies, Myyah awakens in a new body. While the chance of a woman becoming a host for Myyah is higher if that woman's body is stronger genetically, Myyah herself does not choose who her next host is.Perfect Works, pg. 166 Abilities Each host Myyah has is random, though women with stronger genetics are more likely to become an incarnation of Myyah. All known Myyah incarnations are adult women, though it is unclear if is all or most of her incarnations transform to have purple hair and blue eyes. As there have been a total of 998 Myyah incarnations by the events of the game, this averages her life spent in each incarnation to around ten years. The only notable superhuman abilities she possesses are the ability to retain memory across incarnations and some considerable psionic abilities, strong enough to cleanly "reprogram" someone's subconscious to perform a chosen task, though for the most part she prefers working in the shadows to manipulate world events. This is evidenced by her sparse participation in battles in a mostly supportive role, usually piloting her C-1 Vierge. Myyah's role As humanity is the key to the revival of System Deus, Myyah's role is to ensure fleshy components with strong genetics (such as Wels), derived from humanity itself, for the make-up of System Deus's eventual body which is initially located in Mahanon, and moved to the Merkava during Xenogears. Myyah may base her value of humanity on its eventual use in resurrecting Deus, but its potential beyond its genetic value presents a hindrance to her goal. Thus, when civilization reaches too far, grows physically, becomes too 'selfish', or becomes too aware, Myyah 'resets' humanity back to the minimum needed to start anew, usually through a global genocide or war. Biography Eldridge catastrophe (0000) Deus activated biological computer Kadomony, generating the first mother being in response to Abel's contact with the Wave Existence shortly before planetfall. This original being emerges from the wreckage and uses the biological assembler plant to create Cain and the Gazel Ministry. In order to manage these new humans, she created two duplicates of herself: Myyah, the Complement, and Elly, the Antitype. The mother then returned to Kadomony's stasis pod, where she slowly rots over the next several thousand years. Myyah begins her mission to supplement Deus' plans. Zeboim era (6000s) In 6053, Myyah awakened in a pair of identical twin sisters (whether or not this is the first or last time is unknown) called M0661 and M0612. Using their connection to her advantage, Myyah conducts espionage within the Zeboim government and had the twin sisters manipulate the government. In 6078, due to the genetic body damage of Zeboim's populace, Myyah decided to reset the human evolutionary cycle by starting a worldwide nuclear war. Upon finding out that a nano-engineer named Kim Kasim is working on a way to repair the genetic breakdown causing infertility in the vast majority of Zeboim citizens, she commissions Kim to continue his work on nanomachines. However, when Kim moves to secure his creation for himself, Myyah sends an assault team to requisition it and kill anyone in their way. She influences events to accelerate the death of the civilization so that humanity can 'reset' to a form more desirable for Deus. This resulted in the nuclear annihilation of the entire Zeboim civilization, which then sinks to the bottom of the Aquvy sea. Constructing Solaris (9164) Myyah and others create Solaris and it is led by Emperor Cain, the Gazel Ministry, and Myyah herself for the purpose of System Deus. As Myyah managed the Gazel Ministry at this time, she was the hidden ruler of Solaris during this period. Shevat-Solaris War (9496) In 9496, the Shevat-Solaris War broke out. Myyah expected that possibly there were humans with Ether ability. Those with Ether ability who aligned with an Anima Relic would have much more power than the Gazel Ministers, who had no Ether ability, and would be very desirable as parts for Deus. Because of this, the Gazel Ministry found Myyah's existence a nuisance, and they contacted the Elders of Shevat. They would give to Shevat half the land's surface for the freezing of Myyah in carbonite. And added to this was a clause for the trade of Sophia. Constructing Soylent Systems (9499) Myyah and Solaris are responsible for building Soylent System facilities all over the world where human corpses are secretly processed into meat, food and medicine which is fed to the populace of both the planet and Solaris in order to enable their Limiters. The flesh collected from Wels will also be used for System Deus, as part of the Gazel Ministry's M Plan. The discord between Myyah and the Gazel Ministry comes out in the open. Shevat-Solaris War continued (9500) During the Shevat-Solaris War, the Gazel Ministry wished to begin the process of resurrecting Deus. Myyah was opposed to this, feeling humanity's potential was insufficient. In order to keep Myyah from interfering with their plans, the Gazel Ministry secretly arranged a deal with the Elders of Shevat to exchange Sophia for Myyah, making Myyah a captive of Shevat and starting a series of tragic events that eventually led to Sophia's death. Meeting Lacan (9501) Little did the Gazel Ministry know that Myyah allowed for herself to captured, in order to meet Lacan, who was blaming himself for Sophia's death during the war.Perfect Works, pg. 24 After Myyah convinced him he still could attain power, Lacan set the imprisoned Myyah free from Shevat. Together, they went to contact the Zohar in The Land of Bethlehem. With the help of Myyah, Lacan made contact with the Zohar. However, without the Antitype and because Lacan had not fully developed spiritually as the Contact, the process was incomplete. Lacan developed a destructive personality and, using the Diabolos Corps, he went on to cause the Day of Collapse. Although defeated, he and Myyah have transmigrated their minds into other humans since. This too was part of Myyah's plan, as with this event, she had reset humanity once again, in order to see those with high ether abilities survive and and serve as the basis for the next wave of humanity.Perfect Works, pg. 160 Meeting Karellen At an unknown point in time, presumably sometime between 9501-9510, Karellen met Myyah, and he joined her side in their mission to revive Deus. Creating the Ethos church (9511) After the Shevat-Solaris War, Myyah creates a religion called the Ethos. Because roughly 98% of humanity died in the Diabolos Collapse, it was extremely easy for Solaris to instill the Ethos onto humanity, ensuring another revolt like the Shevat-Solaris war did not occur and that Solaris gained the resources it needed to function from the surface, including their 'worker bees'. Contacting Karellen (9959) Karellen initiates the fifth stage of the Malakh Plan. He comes into contact with Myyah's 996th incarnation. Creating Ramsus (9975) Unable to locate the current incarnation of the Contact, Myyah cooperates with Karellen to clone an artificial Contact using Emperor Cain's DNA. The clone, Ramsus, gains awareness before even being born and develops an inferiority complex soon after. Possessing Karen Wong (9985) Myyah awakens in Karen Wong, Fei Fong Wong's mother, and uses her new position to conduct torturous experiments on Fei while his father Khan is away, eventually resulting in the inadvertent creation of Id. Taking Fei to testing labs, Myyah would bring in humans and demi-humans who had a high compatibility with the Anima Relics, to make psychic contact with Fei to forcefully awaken him, causing much psychological damage on Fei's psyche, as well as physical/mental torture. Fei attempted to tell Khan about Karen's strange and abusive behavior, but Khan simply handwaved it and dismissed it as childish fantasies. During this time, Myyah contacted Karellen and told him to abandon Ramsus since she found the Contact: Fei. 10 months after Myyah awakened in Karen, Myyah stands by passively while Grahf attacks Khan, triggering a spontaneous release of Fei's power. Karen regains control momentarily, long enough to throw herself in front of her son to save his life, and is mortally wounded in the process. Fei recedes into the "coward" personality, shielding himself by displacing the tragedy and horror of these events onto his alter-ego, Id, who remains the dominant personality for the rest of his teenage years under Grahf's destructive tutelage. Jugend Military Academy Myyah reawakens in a new host body of a second class citizen at Jugend Military Academy who Kahran Ramsus loved. It is also implied that she kept her real identity and powers a secret from Ramsus, given his surprise that Myyah didn't die in Xenogears. Using this to her advantage, she begins to manipulate Kahran Ramsus over the years in order to gain power within the Gebler faction on Solaris. While there is no evidence that Myyah was an Element, it seems she did know Hyuga Ricdeau, Jessie "Jesiah" Black and Sigurd Harcourt. ''Xenogears'' (9999) Myyah appears frequently during the game with Kahran Ramsus, her current vessel being 26 years old. Appearing repeatedly throughout the game's events in opposition to the party, both behind the scenes and in direct confrontations, Myyah acts as an agent of Deus, an intergalactic bioweapon designed to conduct warfare on a planetary scale. At one point in the game, she unsuccessfully brainwashes Elly. Myyah also calls Elly's eyes "beautiful". Later on, when Fei and the party are escaping Solaris, Myyah, alongside Grahf, intercepts the party in her guise as the Executioner. When Elly's father, Erich, uses his gear to protect Elly and her friends, Myyah overcharges his gear and causes it to explode, killing him. As an enraged, glowing Elly advances towards her, Myyah comments that it is impressive that she was this powerful, even in her 'unawakened' state. In Merkava, when the party goes to rescue Elly, Myyah taunts an arriving Ramsus. Ramsus, realizing he had been used by her, kills her in front of the newly-activated Deus. As she collapses, Myyah remarks that, as someone fated to be unable to kill herself, this was the only way she could die. The party then witnesses Myyah's reawakening in Elly, who explains humanity's purpose relative to Deus shortly before being absorbed into its core. Deus utilizes its newly acquired Anima Relics and Karellen's nanotechnology to ascend to a higher, more advanced form than its original design was capable of, and climbs into orbit in an attempt to resume its journey. Fei gives pursuit in the Xenogears, the only Gear left operational after the destruction of the Zohar Modifier, and battles with Myyah in her final incarnation, Urobolus. This form resembles a half human half serpent like Medusa with angelic wings. After Fei successfully defeated her in this form, she ceased to exist. Once Myyah is eradicated for good, Krellan is convinced of Fei's point of view and resigns from his original mission, opting instead to walk the Path of Sephirot and travel to the higher dimension from which the Wave Existence originated, leaving Fei and Elly to return to the planet. The chains of fate are broken, and Fei and Elly become the final incarnations of their eternally returning personas, with the memories and experiences of all their past selves incorporated into them. Gameplay Gameplay wise as the boss character, Myyah appears as a supporting character along with Ramsus. As Executioner, she wields a staff along with Grahf during the boss battle against Fei and the group during their escape in Solaris. In Gear battles, her Gear is the C-1 Vierge which is the prototype version of Elly's Gear, Vierge, where it was called as Myyah's Gear during the game where she still heals Ramsus' Gear with a Restore ability which is similar to Fix Frame HP from the other Gears. She is later demonstrated her fighting abilities during Disc 2, where she pilots her Omnigear, Opiomorph. She relies on ether magic such as wave #4 ability that can make negative stats to her opponents, at the cost of her Gear itself losing both defense and ether attack stats when damaging her opponents. If being attacked by her opponent, her defense and ether attack will increase in every turns from her boss battle. In her final form as Urobolus, she can claw her opponent multiple times but has high evade to basic attacks. She can also constrict her opponent at the same time. She has a unique ability where she takes down her opponent and creates a fire and wind based attack to make a deadly damage. Etymology While her name was translated to 'Miang' in the North American English release of Xenogears, it has been since revealed through Perfect Works that her actual name was intended to be translated as Myyah. Myyah is the reverse of Elly's full name (Elehayym), with the omitted 'El' being Hebrew and meaning 'God', symbolizing how she is connected to Elly but different from Elly. The missing 'El' could also symbolize how Myyah is without the true "god". Myyah is the reverse of Elly - Elly's "god" is the Wave Existence, while Myyah's "god" is Deus. Hawwa is the Arabic name of Eve. In Islamic teachings, Hawwa is the equivalent of "Eve" in Abrahamic religious teachings. Symbolism *Combining the meaning of Myyah Hawwa's name, it can mean "God and not God's Eve", a contradiction. However, this contradiction has deep meaning. Myyah is carrying out what she believes is the "will of God". However, she is actually carrying out the "will of Deus". *Myyah can be seen as the Biblical Eve of Genesis, as she is the mother of Cain, and the "mother" of Abel, and can be thought of as the first woman. *Myyah has been seen as the Xenogears equivalent of Wilhelm from Xenosaga. However, Myyah's goal is to resurrect Deus by using humanity, whereas Wilhelm's goal was to reset the universe to a blank state. In comparison to Elehayym *Myyah can be seen as an allegory for the suppression and oppression of the sacred femininity and Anima, much like how Elly is the opposite (which is why one of Elly's incarnations is 'Sophia'). *Myyah inherits all her memories and powers every time she possesses another woman, unlike Elehayym, who is born and grows among humanity. *For the purpose of 'guiding' humanity towards the eventual resurrection of Deus, Myyah can be compared to an "evil mother" or "bad mother", seemingly devoid of any human sense of love, desire, or empathy, much unlike many of Elly's incarnations. This often sets up the cycle of Myyah influencing humanity, young and old alike, to murder each other when it benefits her cause, with Elehayym continually sacrificing herself for those same people. Quotes * "If you only had power... you could have saved her. You want it, don't you? Unrivaled power...! Don't you want to become... the absolute being...!?" (to Lacan about Sophia) * "I personally find martial arts quite interesting. I look forward to seeing the Tournament." * "My... what a handsome boy!" (seeing Fei) * "Kahr... Peeping is not very becoming, you know...!?" * "Stupidity in puppets has its advantages." * "We don't care who is sitting on the throne. Any obedient sheep will be fine." * "Crystalline, blue... like the surface of a lake... Your eyes... They're beautiful." (to Elly) * "It's my job to be hated." * "Kahr... Don't worry. I'll always be by your side. No one knows you better than I do." * "We no longer have any more use for you. Haven't you realized that yet? You're a piece of trash. And being the reject you are, why don't you just leave? Hah hah hah." (to Ramsus) * "Good... This is how I wanted it, Kahr... I am fated so as not to be able to kill myself... Now ...all ...my ...wishes... have... come... true. Thanks... to ... you...!" (her 998th incarnation is killed by Ramsus) *''"I am Myyah. The keeper of time. The representative of our god Deus. I was born to guide the people toward the path of the resurrection of Deus."'' *''"Who knows...? The creations of god will someday be a hindrance. That is why they must be eliminated. I am just programmed to act in this way..."'' (Myyah after possessing Elly, when Citan asks why civilization must now be destroyed) References Gallery ZoharEye.gif|Elehayym/Myyah on the Eldridge. MyyahC1.png|Concept art (after the Eldridge crash). MyyahC2.png|Concept art (after the Eldridge crash). MyyahC3.png|Concept art (after the Eldridge crash). ExecutionerConcept.png|Concept art (Executioner). EllyArt.png|Art of Elly's potential to be possessed by Myyah, in front of the Pendant of Nisan. Executioner_miang.jpg|Myyah wearing her "Executioner" outfit. Exe.jpg|Executioner. Miang_Hawwa_Concept_Art.jpg|Concept art. 06.jpg|Concept art. 03.jpg|Concept art. Xeno-miang.png|Concept art. Xeno-miang-face.png|Concept art. XenoGraph.png|Myyah "killed" by Ramsus. MiangMother.jpg|Myyah awakens in Elly after her former body is killed by Ramsus. MyyahGod.png|Myyah reveals god is a weapon. MyyahManga1.png|Myyah in the manga. MyyahManga2.png|Myyah dying. Category:Xenogears characters Category:Female characters Category:Antagonists Category:Deceased